I recently travelled to Fuzhou and head over to Fujian Tulou. I took the train to Nanjing County (南靖县) not to be mistaken with Nanjing (南京) in Jiangsu.

3 Scams while heading towards Yun Shui Yao(雲水謠)

When I was in China, it was literally a pain in the ass for me, as I am not able to do any travel research and the lack of information opens up to many scams.

#1 Hotel Scam

When we were on the bus, the bus attendant has asked us if we had booked any hotels/ rooms for the night, and had asked us if we wanted to stay at the driver’s house turned hotel. We were quoted RMB 100/night.

There were 2 guys that had decided to stay at the driver’s hotel, and when we met them the next day, they had complained that the driver’s hotel is a distance away from the central location of Yun Shui Yao, and they kind of felt being scammed.

Tip: NEVER EVER book a room, without looking at the photos or looking at the location or researching it.

#2 Bus Ticket Scam

The bus has constantly stopped at various bus stops to pick up passengers, and the ticket cost is about RMB 1 for most passengers. But we had to pay RMB 13 per person to take from the Nanjing Train Station to Yun Shui Yao. When I was on the bus, I told my mum maybe cause they are taking short distance, that’s why the cost is RMB 1.

But I was surprised to hear them speaking in the dialect where the driver has asked the bus attendant to check if the passengers are tourist or locals. The passengers happened to be Chinese tourist from another province, and they immediately asked the bus attendant how much they had to pay for the bus ride which is about 1 stop away. The bus attendant had mentioned that it would cost them RMB 3. When the driver heard it, he immediately protest and mentioned that they should charge them RMB 5 instead.

#3 Location Scam

Yun Shui Yao is located some distance away from the entrance gate. When we got down the bus at the entrance, we were approached fervently by various locals, that own hostel / hotels within the vicinity.

Hostel owners, frequently try to get customers to stay at their hostels. There was one old auntie that had wanted us to stay at her hotel which is located outside the entrance of the attraction. After I rejected her, she commented that we were stupid not to stay at her Hotel. When people trying to get my business call me stupid, I would never give then the business no matter how good the location was.

Before I came to Yun Shui Yao, I was told that there are more than 200 hostels and hotels within the premises. When I was at the entrance of the attraction, there were 2 other Chinese couples that had not booked their rooms and have the intention to head towards the central of the attraction to book their rooms. Most of the hostels would cost about RMB 100 per night, but we had gotten it pretty cheap. (I would be sharing on how we have gotten the room less than the market rate)

Tip: If you intend to stay at Yun Shui Yao, do stay near the Big Wheel, as it is central of the attraction.